"Vermont Farm Festival." HYHU was briefly played before Alumni. Harpua was preceded by a Rocky Top tease. McGrupp and I Didn't Know featured Fish on trombone. After JJLC, Fish borrowed a snare drum from the Dirch Brothers. Fans of stage banter will want to seek out this show, as the band was particularly chatty.

Show Reviews

Much like many outdoor shows of the time period, this one is full of banter and chatter between the band and friends. Although a 2-set show, this concert runs a full three hours, mainly due to the handful of tracks that are simply banter. Sound quality for the spreadsheet version of this show is better than average, a solid B. Is the show worth a listen? I'll sum up and you decide.

The show starts up with an HYHU tease, dedicated to Steve Drebber. The band debates what to play, with Fish saying that the band always opens with Golgi. Trey shoots back that "it's a great song, man", but the band opens with Alumni instead. Notable here is that this show is a graduation party, timed with graduation at nearby UVM. The show took place outdoors, as it very noticeable as the band takes a break to "gas the generators" that ran the equipment. After YEM, which features a relatively tame jam, the band fades in and out and apparently blows a fuse in their monitors. Listen to Trey call Paul to come down and help.

There is a significant Bowie tease in here before GTBT by Fish. In fact, he tries to start up the song twice, but they won't play it. The GTBT is the first set highlight here - loud and raucous playing by Trey. There's more equipment issues after GTBT and Paul is running back and forth trying to get things working. Fluffhead here features an extremely extremely slow Clod section - perhaps the slowest the band has ever played; fortunately the Arrival is beautiful. Post-Fluffhead, listen for Trey saying that his glasses kept falling off during Fluffhead. Post-Lizards, there's an announcement about a brown and black dog walking around injured. Trey also chides Page for forgetting the last song they played and spacing out. Not much to the Sally, but the AC/DC Bag > Possum is smooth.

A fun Icculus in which Trey says that his life plan is based on the Helping Friendly Book starts the second set followed by another one featuring 'the second best trombonist drummer in all of Vermont...and certain parts of New Hampshire...Moses Brown, Moses DeWitt, and Moses Heaps." McGrupp contains a Fish trombone solo which just butchers the closing section of the song. It also features the "check it out" interplay that the band would insert into the studio version of Fluffhead. I like the Curtain here, featuring some DEG teases. At this point, the song was not even 1 year old and had made some strides.

After the Wilson>Peaches, the band stops while someone goes to town to get more kegs and Trey announces "don't forget to pick up your trash before you leave the premises because if you don't do it...someone else will". Fish breaks his snare drum during JJLC and there's a pause while he borrows one from another band. Trey plays with an electronic wolf howl toy and also fools around with the Flintstones theme. I Didn't Know features the 2nd trombone solo of the set (has this happened since?). Flat Fee is likely the fastest they play the song and Whipping Post is particularly nice.

Harpua, the closer of the night, is preceded by a Beverly Hills lyric joke, and a Rocky Top tease. I like this Harpua, which features Poster Nutbag as a Big White Furry Creature from Town, as well as Mike telling Jimmy to "reconsider the goldfish". There's also a Page solo where he is introduced as "Richard Groove Holmes". Hilarious. A ripping Fire ends the set.

Not much musically going on in this show that can't be found elsewhere. The banter, however, makes this one a fun listen, just to hear what it was like in the old days. The band has a lot of fun with the audience, and the mics pick up all sorts of chatter.

Average show. Nothing great. Standard performances with some flubs here and there. McGrupp was a highlight, aws was Whipping Post and Harpua. Nothing else really stood out to me. Trey plays well for the majority of the set, which always helps things a bit. I'm also a fan of "Shaggy Dog", I just think it's a classic Phish song. This show was played very well, just nothing stood to bring it to the next level.

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